John Menadue

John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.

John's recent articles

Galahs and princes. Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton

What was that about Australia and the Asian Century? The umbilical cords still tie us to the past. John Menadue From Walter Hamilton: I had a choice today on the ABC Online News website of reading a story about a galah plague in a Queensland outback town or viewing the first pictures (breathless pause) of a certain baby born in London the other night. I chose the galahs. Earlier in the day, sitting in the waiting room of a doctors surgery, I kept my head down and read my Kindle book as Channel Sevens breakfast show replayed a...

Regional Settlement Agreement with Papua New Guinea - a post-script. John Menadue

With the dust settling a little I thought it might be safe to return to this issue! I said in my blog of July 20 that I supported the general thrust of the RSA with PNG, although a lot remained to be sorted out and the implementation is already showing signs of problems. Without repeating myself too much, however, I emphasise the following. We cannot ignore that close to 1,000 souls have been drowned at sea trying to get by boat to Australia. Surely the critics cannot ignore this. Regional arrangements are the only way to go. It...

Japan: Where to now? Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton

Japans ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won a resounding victory in last weekends Upper House election. It now has sufficient seats in both houses of parliament to dominate the important Diet committees and ensure passage of key legislation. The LDP, however, has fallen short of obtaining enough votes to push through constitutional change on its own. Amendments require the support of two-thirds of both houses of the Diet, before being put to a referendum. The LDP still does not command a two-thirds majority, even with the support of right-wing opposition parties that favour ditching the pacifist clauses that were...

Zimmerman - race or gender? Guest blogger: Marcus Einfeld

Following their counterparts in the US, the attention of the international media has been attracted by the acquittal last Saturday by a Miami jury of 6 women of neighbourhood watch monitor George Zimmerman for shooting dead a young black teenager Trayvon Martin. My knowledge of the matter comes only from media reports but I have taken the trouble to seek out some of the more responsible outlets for these observations. There was no dispute that Zimmerman shot and killed Martin who was unarmed at the time. Zimmerman claimed that Martin attacked him and that he fired in self-defence. Even...

Japanese whaling - bad faith, bad science. Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton

Australia and Japan are at loggerheads before the International Court of Justice not because they disagree over whaling but because they disagree and are both members of the International Whaling Commission. What may at first seem a fussy distinction is fundamental and important. It is only because of their mutual commitments under an international convention that the whaling dispute can come before the court in The Hague. In response to Australias complaint that it has been acting in bad faith by cloaking commercial whaling under the lab coat of science, Japan has cited its continuing membership of the IWC as...

The Regional Settlement Arrangement with Papua New Guinea. John Menadue

With some reservations I support the general thrust of the RSA with PNG. I do that largely for the same reasons that I supported the earlier proposed agreement with Malaysia. The RSA is in PM Rudds words a hard line but I see it as the least worst option given the present intractable political impasse and the 850 souls who have been drowned at sea. Where were their human rights? The arrangement does offer the prospect of slowing or stopping boat arrivals whereas the revamped Nauru policy did not. Nauru was never going to work a second time...

Don't race to the bottom on asylum seekers!

Kevin Rudd, in your review of asylum seeker policy please dont let Foreign Minister Carr lead you to a race to the bottom with Tony Abbott. The media is clearly being briefed that in a revision of asylum policy, the Government is considering tougher new country assessments by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It is suggested by the Foreign Minister that this is necessary to exclude persons who are really economic migrants. In my blog of July 5, I expressed concern that the Foreign Minister was implying that the Refugee Review Tribunal was too soft on...

Joining the dots on Asia. John Menadue

The advocates of stronger ties with Asia spend a great deal of time with seminars and press statements about the importance of the region to our future. They are correct but they refuse to join the dots and advocate the changes on the really important issues impeding our relations with our region. Some of those impediments are symbolic and some are real. They include: How can we expect our region to take us seriously when we have an English Queen as our head of state? Many Asians that I have spoken to are polite but shake their head with...

Japanese language learning in Australia - declining and mainly for beginners. Guest blogger: Professor Chihiro Kinoshita Thomson

Japanese has been Australias most studied foreign language in schools for a number of years. Japanese is neither a traditional school language subject such as French and Latin, nor a community language such as Italian and Greek. Japanese is distant from English linguistically and culturally. Thus it is remarkable that Australia is fourth place on the world map of the number of learners of Japanese by country, and in second place in terms of the ratio of learners in the total population. The 2009 Japan Foundation survey reveals one in 83 Australians were currently learning Japanese. Considering that this trend...

Regional cooperation is the key. Guest blogger: Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser

Australias problems with asylum seekers and refugees are not unique. We are not the only point of destination. There are around 30,000 in Australia, over 160,000 in Canada, 51,000 in Austria, 22,000 in Belgium, 74,000 in Netherlands with a population much less than ours, nearly 150,000 in the United Kingdom and 589,000 in Germany. There is a massive move of a similar kind to Europe. We are not the only destination. It is a worldwide problem which requires regional and international cooperation. We cannot fix it on our own. Asylum seeker and refugee movements by their very nature involve...

Pope Francis blasts 'globalisation of indifference' for immigrants. Report from National Catholic Reporter

The treatment of asylum seekers in Australia brings shame to all of us. Pope Francis called for an end to the 'globalisation of indifference'. In his first visit outside the Vatican Pope Francis called for decency and humanity in the treatment of outsiders. John Menadue   Published onNational Catholic Reporter(http://ncronline.org)   Francis blasts 'globalization of indifference' for immigrants John L. Allen Jr.|Jul. 8, 2013NCR Today At a time when Catholic leaders in the United States and other parts of the world are pressing for more compassionate immigration policies, Pope Francis on Monday devoted...

Tony Abbott - one-liners won't work. John Menadue

Sorry if I keep repeating myself, but Tony Abbott keeps repeating his one-liners about stopping the boats. He provides little explanation about how or why his policies will work today. He tells us that John Howards policy stopped the boats and he will do the same. But John Howards approach was over a decade ago. Since then the situation has dramatically changed. Certainly under John Howard the boats did largely stop, although asylum seekers continued to arrive by air at the rate of about 4,000 persons per annum. Furthermore if we look at the broader picture of asylum...

Tony Abbott looks badly shaken. John Menadue

Tony Abbott is obviously shaken by Kevin Rudds return. The coalition had been expecting to win by default and chose quite deliberately to provide as small a target as possible and release few policies. What policies there were were usually reduced to one liners. Tony Abbott left the dead wood in his shadow cabinet. He refused three debates with Kevin Rudd, something which opposition leaders would normally seize with both hands. And he refused to debate the three issues on which he has been staking so much, deficits, boats and the carbon tax. Then there was Kevin Rudds intervention in...

Ending the policy paralysis on refugees. John Menadue

In my blog of July 6, Asylum seekers good news at last, I expressed concern that it had taken so long for the government to take action and really put effort into the development of a regional framework. It has been obvious for years that this was the path we had to take. We cannot solve this problem unilaterally. As a result our public discourse got diverted into a whole range of divisive and secondary issues. There are several reasons why the government failed so badly in driving a regional framework. It was spooked by Tony Abbotts...

Kevin Rudd - the anti-politician. John Menadue

We often ponder why Kevin Rudd has remained so popular even through his three years in the wilderness. A blog The Piping Strike explains to me the phenomenon better than others. It says The uncomfortable answer is that Rudd is popular because he encapsulates the electorates distrust and even dislike of the political system. The kid with the glasses in the library doesnt seem like the normal politician. He is attractive because of that. This makes it hard for the political class, both politicians and journalists, when Kevin Rudd doesnt play the game the same way as others....

Asylum seekers - good news at last. John Menadue

The joint communique issued yesterday by President Yudhoyono and PM Rudd is the best news that I have read on asylum seekers for many years. A regional framework is the only viable policy for the future. Individual countries cannot do it alone. The communique said As co-chairs of the Bali Process, the two Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to continue to develop a regional solution, involving countries of origin, transit and destination which covers elements of prevention, early detection and protection to combatting trafficking in persons and people smuggling and other related transnational crimes. They stress the importance of...

Asylum seekers. Don't let us be diverted from regional arrangements. John Menadue

Foreign Minister Carr is focusing on whether some asylum seekers are refugees or economic migrants. This is symptomatic of a government that is continually in crisis mode over boat arrivals. It should focus on the strategic issues such as orderly departure arrangements in source countries like Afghanistan and regional agreements with Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. In my blog of July 1 I expressed doubt about the arguments of Foreign Minister Carr that we needed to have a tougher and more hard-edged assessment of asylum seekers. Understandably officials of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship dont like their preliminary decisions...

The dispute over the islands - leaving well alone. Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton

Which of China or Japan has the stronger claim to the Senkaku or Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea, the dispute that has driven their relations to the lowest point in 40 years? Chinas case is that the islands, having been appropriated by imperial Japan, were forfeit when it surrendered to the Allies in 1945. Japan argues that China acquiesced in Tokyos annexation of the uninhabited islands in the 1890s and only changed its tune after oil and gas reserves were found nearby in the 1960s. From my reading of the facts neither argument can be sustained. ...

The 'C' Team vs. the Shadow Cabinet. John Menadue

Tony Abbott has described the new Rudd Ministry as the C team. He is very strong on one-liners, but is there much content behind them? Laura Tingle in the Australian Financial Review suggests that the new Rudd team could be a serious election contender because it focuses its strength on the likely key areas in the run-up to the next election. So lets compare what Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott offer in ministerial talent. In Kevin Rudds team Anthony Albanese is a proven performer and will be much more effective than Stephen Conroy in making the case for...

What should Prime Minister Kevin Rudd do about boat arrivals? John Menadue

The new government has indicated that it will be reviewing current policies on such issues as carbon reduction and boat arrivals. I have written extensively about asylum seekers and refugees. I suggest that in the short term, the PM should consider the following on boat arrivals. We need some perspective in the political debate. We should acknowledge that there is a political problem but there is no need to panic. We are a nation of immigrants and refugees. Our wealth is built on it. We had about 16,000 asylum seekers in 2012, although there has been a surge in...

Stopping the boats decently - can it be done? Guest blogger: Frank Brennan SJ

In this last financial year, 25,145 people have arrived on 394 boats - an average of over 70 people and more than a boat a day as Scott Morrison, Tony Abbotts Shadow Minister never tires of telling us. Except for Sri Lankans, most of those arriving by boat come not directly from their country of persecution but via various countries with Indonesia being their penultimate stop. There is an understandable bipartisan concern in the Australian parliament about the blowout of boat arrivals to 3,300 per month. An arrival rate of that sort (40,000 pa) puts at risk the whole offshore...

Never underestimate a survivor. John Menadue

It is surprising to see that the Foreign Minister Bob Carr suggests that we need to be much tougher in refugee determination as many claimants for refugee status are really economic refugees. Some claimants will undoubtedly be economic migrants posing as refugees. But the refugee determination process which we and others have developed over decades is designed to sort this out and reject those who claim our protection if they are not genuine refugees. The figures do not support Bob Carr's proposition. After a thorough review by the Refugee Determination Tribunal, about 90% of boat arrivals are found...

Japanese Pacifist Constitution in Danger. Guest blogger: John Woodward

The Japanese pacifist constitution prohibits Japan from waging war. This restriction will be removed if the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has his way. And he is likely to succeed come the 21 July national election for the Upper House of the Japanese Diet (parliament). Abes government is riding high in polls since his Liberal Democratic Party election win in late December 2012. His government now controls more than 2/3rds of the lower house. After 21 July elections he is likely to have 2/3rds support in the Upper House. On a 2/3rds majority vote in each house the constitution...

Back from the brink of disaster. John Menadue

Many people and particularly women will be disappointed that our first female Prime Minister has been forced out. She has been most unfairly treated by the media. Things have been said about her by Tony Abbott and others that would not be said about a male Prime Minister. But my view is that a change to Kevin Rudd was desirable for several reasons. Under Julia Gillards leadership the electoral prospects for the ALP were catastrophic. Tony Abbotts majority could have been so large that it would take two and possibly three terms to turn it around. The Australian...

Taiwan shows the way in health insurance. John Menadue

I have spoken and written many times about the inefficiency and inequity of the taxpayer subsidy of $3.5 billion annually to the private health insurance funds in Australia. These funds favour the wealthy; enable some people to jump to the top of the hospital queue; they have administrative costs three times those of Medicare; they weaken Medicares ability to control costs and through gap insurance they have facilitated the largest increase in specialists fees in a quarter of a century in Australia. They have not taken the pressure of public hospitals .In fact they have made it worse by...

Julia Gillard's greatest failure. John Menadue

The Prime Ministers greatest failure is her refusal to lead the reform of the structure of the ALP. That structure is controlled by a handful of faction and union bosses like Paul Howes. In return for protecting their positions, they are now repaying their debt to her by shoring up her precarious position. The last ALP federal conference considered a report by Steve Bracks, John Faulkner and Bob Carr for modest party reform. Julia Gillard failed to provide leadership on these reforms and the ALP is now paying a very heavy price. The rank-and-file of ALP members...

Beware the debt and deficit trap and the European mistake. John Menadue

The Europeans may at last be breaking free of the debt and deficit trap that has caused so much social and economic damage across Europe. Even the IMF is at last challenging the austerity mindset that took hold in Europe. There is a lesson for Australia in this. The Australian Government has allowed itself to be manipulated into a debt and deficit trap set by the Coalition. To head off Coalition and media criticism, it foolishly decided that it must get the budget into surplus this financial year. It succumbed to this pressure despite the fact that Australia does...

The Vatican appeals in vain for decency towards refugees. John Menadue

On June 6, the Vatican emphasized that governments protect refugees. It said that the worlds governments must give absolute priority to the fundamental rights of refugees. Cardinal Veglio who heads the Pontifical Council for Migrants said: Protection must be guaranteed to all who live under conditions of forced migration, taking into account their specific means, which can vary from a residency permit for victims of human trafficking to the possibility of being granted citizenship for those who are stateless. He added that policies in this area must be guided by the principle of the centrality and dignity of...

What is powering Japan's foreign policy? Guest blogger Walter Hamilton

Could it be they are handing out macho pills at the Japanese Foreign Ministry? Has it become de rigueur for the countrys diplomats to browbeat international forums? Are internal divisions within the ministry about to break out into open policy warfare? There are at present enough straws in the wind to invite these questions. The metaphoric macho pills might explain the extraordinary outburst by Japans Human Rights Ambassador (and former Ambassador to Australia), Hideaki Ueda, during a recent UN committee hearing. He was responding to an African delegates criticism of Japan for not allowing lawyers to be present...

The personal, public and social costs of mistakes in health. John Menadue

After examining more than 14,000 hospital admissions in NSW and SA, the national cost of harm from avoidable adverse events (mistakes) in our hospitals was estimated at just over$2 b pa in 1995/96. This study was undertaken by the Task Force on Quality of Australian Health Care which reported to Health Minister Carmen Lawrence. 51% of all mistakes were estimated to be avoidable and would represent nearly 500,000 preventable hospital bed days per year. The task force commented that these mistakes are a problem that overshadows all others in the health sector Professor Richardson and Dr McKie from the...

Are we serious about Asia? Guest blogger: Steve FitzGerald

In my blog 'On smoko' of 2 April 2013 I again raised the issue of Australia's continuing failure to equip itself for our future in Asia. I asked whether we would go on smoko again, as we had following the Garnaut Report of 1989. Professor Steve FitzGerald responded to this blog with some comments. I thought it would be useful to highlight again what he has said about the recently announced Asian Century Strategic Advisory Board. Incidentally, I was in touch with the Implementation Secretariat of the Asian Century Strategic Advisory Board on 5 April 2013. I asked how many...

Asylum policies leading nowhere. Joint blog: John Menadue and Arja Keski-Nummi

This piece was published in Crikey 11 June 2013.   The destructive and divisive debate about various asylum policies is designed to scare us. The most shameful manifestation of this in the past week has been the alleged terrorist in community detention.   A person sought asylum in Australia. He was given an adverse security assessment . He was then held in community detention with his family. He was subject to reporting and monitoring. The authorities knew where he was at all times. Given these facts we were probably safer from him (if indeed he was...

It's the tourism product stupid - not marketing! John Menadue

The Australian tourism industry tells us often that we need to spend more in marketing and publicity and that the tourists will come. I have always been sceptical; believing that what matters most is the tourism product itself. Marketing didnt work with the Oprah Winfrey circus despite the government tipping in $5 million. On top of that, Australian tourism agents provided accommodation and support for 300 of the fans who accompanied Oprah. The Australian dollar was certainly strong at the time but the net result of Oprahs visit seems to have been a drop in tourist numbers not only...

Doctors scared Maggie Thatcher. John Menadue

Excuse me for dropping names but at a round table discussion with Maggie Thatcher in the late 1980s that I attended in Sydney she was asked Now that you have fixed the work practices of the miners and the printers in the United Kingdom what are you going to do about the restrictive work practices of the doctors? She replied. I will leave that to the last session in my last term as Prime Minister She never got around to it. And neither have we in Australia. The politically partisan Business Council of Australia has been campaigning for increased...

How about it Gina and Twiggy? John Menadue

Since 1904 the brightest and best of young Australians have been winning Rhodes Scholarships to study at Oxford. Winners have included prime ministers, political leaders, a governor general, a Nobel Prize winner and high court judges. How about funding a substantial foundation to provide for the brightest and best of young Australians to study at the best universities in Asia Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere. Your companies have been very profitable in exporting Australian owned ores to Asia. Your business futures and indeed Australias future is tied to Asia. But we lack the skills...

Walter Hamilton. Australia - still a colonial relic in Japan.

The two greatest calamities to befall the people of Tokyo in modern times were the September 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and the March 1945 firebombing by American B-29s. In each case, many tens of thousands perished within a matter of hours.   In Sumida ward, a working class area in the east of the city that suffered grievously on both occasions, a large Buddhist-style memorial hall, the Tokyo Irei-do (erected in 1930; rebuilt in 1951), links these two events as though the whirlwind reaped by Japan in the Second World War was itself an act of God....

The Miners' Lament. John Menadue

It is only a matter of time before the miners start lamenting that they did not seriously negotiate with Kevin Rudd over his Resources Super Profits Tax (RSPT). The mining industry has always favoured rent/profit taxes instead of royalties. What the mining industry really disagreed with was the rate of the Resources Super Profits Tax. The GST Distribution Review Report of October 2012 said the following. Well designed rent-based taxes are likely to be more economically efficient than royalties, particularly in periods of low commodity prices or high costs. . .Other factors, such as the size, variability...

Was the 'hung parliament' all that bad? John Menadue

We have been told many times since the 2010 election that the hung parliament was an abomination, it wouldnt work and that it wouldnt last. Denied government after the last election, the Coalition tried to make the government as well as the parliament as unworkable as possible. Paul Keating put it more colourfully If Tony Abbott doesnt get his way, he sets about wrecking the joint. But here we are almost three years later with the parliament seeing out its full term. It hasnt such a bad record as the Jeremiahs said. Lets look first at some achievements....

Catholic Health still leaves the impression that it wants to destroy Medicare. Joint Blog: John Menadue and Ian McAuley

On Mar 14 John Menadue wrote, on this blog site Does Catholic really want to destroy Medicare. Martin Laverty responded on 29 May. This is a further response by Ian McAuley and John Menadue. Together we have written many joint articles on health policy. See publish.pearlsandirritations.com. Catholic Healths response through Martin Laverty identifies two problems with our present health care funding inequities in health delivery and outcomes, and fragmentation of funding and care between Commonwealth and State Governments. Catholics Healths proposed solutions to the two problems are well off the mark, however, and their response ...

Does Catholic Health really want to destroy Medicare? A Catholic Health response by CEO Martin Laverty

On May 14, I wrote a blog 'Does Catholic Health really want to destroy Medicare? Martin Laverty, CEO of Catholic Health, responds as a guest blogger. Catholic Health Australia (CHA) commissioned the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) in 2010 to provide a contemporary assessment of the link between a persons health and their personal wealth. NATSEM found 65 per cent of Australians in the lowest income group lived with a long-term health problem, compared with just 15 per cent of those in the highest income group. In 2012, CHA again tasked NATSEM to calculate the...

Asylum seekers and refugees - political slogans or humanitarian policies? John Menadue

Australia has a proud record in accepting 750,000 refugees since WWII. But the mood has now turned sour. It is so easy for unscrupulous politicians to exploit fear of the foreigner. It is paying off politically. We no longer welcome the stranger. The continually repeated slogan stop the boats is with us almost every day. One line slogans dont make up a coherent policy. We need to look at the facts behind the empty slogans. In 2012 the US had 82 000 asylum claimants. In Germany it was 64 000, in France 55 000, in Sweden 44 000...

Myth-busting. John Menadue

One after another, the opinion polls tell us that the Liberal and National parties are much better economic managers than the ALP. This is despite Australia having one of the best performing economies in the world by almost any measure; debt, economic growth, employment and inflation. Unfortunately for the Liberal and National parties and John Howard and Peter Costello in particular their records as economic managers have recently been taking a beating. First the International Monetary Fund. In January this year, as reported by the SMH on January 11, 2013, the IMF identifies only two periods...

Japan: Renaissance? Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton

After two decades mired in largely self-made problems (post-bubble depreciation; political instability; aging population; nuclear meltdown), Japan is suddenly feeling much better about itself. Anyone observing events could not fail to register the shift in the national mood. Are we witnessing a Japanese renaissance, a return to economic expansion? Will economic recovery ease the way for long-debated constitutional and political reforms? Japanese have a name for it: Abenomics. It hardly matters that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is neither an economist nor the principal driver of the stimulus plan (that role is performed by the new central bank governor, Haruhiko...

What Rupert Murdoch told the US Ambassador about the pending Whitlam dismissal 12 months beforehand in November 1974? Yes 1974. John Menadue

More pieces are falling into place. Last year we learned from Jenny Hockeys second biographic volume of Gough Whitlam that a serving High Court Judge Anthony Mason from August 1975 improperly briefed Sir John Kerr about the dismissal of the Whitlam Government. He even drafted a dismissal letter, although it was never used. The legal, political and business establishment was closing ranks to get rid of the elected Whitlam Government. Now Philip Dorling has written what Rupert Murdoch told the US Ambassador Marshal Green and other Embassy officers over lunch at the US Embassy in Canberra on 27 November...

We are a more generous people than the politicians think we are. John Menadue

It is easy to be disappointed and depressed with the whole toxic debate about asylum seekers. The government is doing some things well, such as releasing more people from detention, but it is failing to provide political and moral leadership in this sensitive area. Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison do their best to demonise asylum seekers and create fear. But many people dont want to be part of this. Last Friday night, with 500 other people, I attended a fund-raising and fancy-dress dinner for the Asylum Seekers Centre in Sydney. My wife and I dressed as best we...

Truth, Trust and the Media. John Menadue

Our mainstream media is in a downward spiral. Its decline is driven by new technology and a growing sense by readers that we can no longer trust the media. We have a lot of spin, but very little well-informed debate. Ken Henry has commented that he cant recall a time when public debate was so bad. An Australian election study 1997/2010 rated trust in the following institutions as follows: Armed forces 91% Universities 80% Police 79% Banks and financial institutions 56% Major Australian companies 54% Political system 53% Public service 41%...

Malaysian Elections Hangover.-How 51% of votes secured only 40 % of the seats. Guest blogger El Tee Kay

As a guest blogger on May 2 I described the intense interest in the General Election to be held on May 5. This was shown on election day with a voter turnout of more than 84%, the highest in Malaysian history. The Opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) won the popular vote but lost the elections. It garnered 5,623,984 or 50.88% of the popular votes but won only 89 Parliamentary seats (40%) compared with the ruling Barisan Nasionals (BN) 5,237,699 votes or 47.38% with 133 seats. The BN lost 7 seats. The component parties of BN, the Malaysian Chinese Association...

Does Catholic Health really want to destroy Medicare? John Menadue

In his submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration on February 15, 2013 Martin Laverty, the CEO of Catholic Health wrote. Another option (to achieve a single funder in health) would be to embrace the Medicare Select proposal put forward by the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission. Medicare Select would enable Australians to choose a health and hospital plan best suited to their needs. They would be able to be insured by Medicare or instead opt out to be insured by a private health insurer or one operated by a non-profit organization Medicare Select...

Euthanasia - A denial of human dignity. Guest blogger Dr Joanne Wright

It is concerning that The Greens and organisations such as GetUp have seen fit to re-ignite the debate about the legalisation of euthanasia. I am a doctor. I worked in palliative care and now work with the elderly. I have seen first hand the complexity of the issues at the end of life. In reality, most people who say they agree with euthanasia have little understanding of the issue at all. The term as it is intended by pro-euthanasia activists refers to the intentional termination of life by another at the request of the person who wishes to die, not...

<